The invention relates to a joining and connecting block between flexible ducts made from an elastomer material such as rubber, which comprise at least two main ducts and two branch ducts, each connected to a main duct. The invention also relates to a method and a device for manufacturing this joining and connecting block.
The flexible ducts which are used in the motor vehicle industry, in particular for forming fluid circuits such as cooling, heating and/or air-conditioning circuits are frequently provided with tappings, connections or branches for connecting a circuit to different members, or connecting several circuits together. The flexible ducts of these circuits follow paths which are often sinuous and must sometimes be assembled or joined together, both for facilitating handling of a set of ducts and for reducing the space occupancy and increasing the reliability of the circuits.
In known constructions of cooling, heating or airconditioning circuits for motor vehicles, each circuit is formed from a main duct to which one or more branch ducts are connected, then the main ducts may be assembled together by means of plastic material parts or else by molding elastomer over the parts of the main ducts which do not comprise the connections to the branch ducts. It is then necessary first of all to connect the different branch ducts one by one to the main duct, then assemble the main ducts together, which is relatively time consuming, so costly, and does not guarantee a relative and strict arrangement of the different ducts with respect to each other.
The purpose of the invention is in particular to overcome these drawbacks of the known technique.